Grr, ok the plot sickens :) Have just spoken with the guys and someone pointed out that native drag-and-drop, custom context menus and similar OS-level integrations are never going to be added to the Flash Player now that Adobe have AIR to put those features into. I'm inclined to see their point, but I need to think up a way around the one-click install showstopper.
Naive approach would be: use a native installer to automate download and install of Adobe AIR (if not exists) and an AIR application without user intervention. Has anyone tried this? Can it be done (legally/technically)? Another alternative would be the Shu Player (http://www.shu-player.com). This bundles the AIR runtime into a single standalone exe with your AIR app, however distributing such applications contravenes the standard Adobe AIR license (see http://www.shu-player.com/air-runtime-notice). Has anyone had any luck negotiating a "case by case runtime distribution agreement" with Adobe for bundling the AIR runtime with an AIR application? Hope you guys can shed some light on this! Cheers, Jules On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 22:33, Jules Suggate <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Hi, sorry for my late reply. > > Merapi is on our list of "possibles", but we don't like the socket-server > approach for reasons of technical aesthetic. Having two separate processes > just smells icky... conceptually the Java code and the Flex code both > address the same concern -- To Build a Rich Client. Separating them > technically is only necessary because the AIR framework doesn't support > everything we need. We'd rather keep the technical structure as similar to > the logical structure as possible. > > An example of what could happen: if the Flex UI crashes, the CD burning > process might continue. Things like this give the socket server approach an > unnatural feel IMHO. > > The main advantage for us of using AIR would be the application updater > harness, but that's ruled out when using the Merapi approach anyway. Most > crucially though, we want a self-contained one-click install, and this is > just not possible using AIR and Merapi from what I can see. > > Cheers, > Jules > > > On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 04:31, valdhor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I don't know about others but this seems, to me, to be a very >> difficult route to take. >> >> Have you looked at the Merapi Project (http://www.merapiproject.net/)? >> This would give you a bridge between your AIR application and the >> local Java implementation. >> >> --- In flexcoders@yahoogroups.com <flexcoders%40yahoogroups.com>, "Jules >> Suggate" >> >> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> > >> > Hi list, long-time-no-post :) >> > >> > I've a gnarly one here. >> > >> > I contract to a VC funded startup formed to create a cross-platform >> desktop >> > client. Unfortunately AIR's APIs are not low-level enough (e.g. you >> can't >> > burn a CD with AIR). We've looked at Zinc, Shu Player, Janus and the >> rest >> > but Zinc and Janus don't support MacOS very well and the legal >> issues around >> > Shu Player make us wary of using it. This is a consumer-facing app >> and needs >> > to be squeaky clean. >> > >> > How about embedding the NPAPI FP10 in a Java process? That would be >> > cross-platform, and we could use NPRuntime to interact seamlessly >> from Java. >> > >> > The Flash Player license allows us to automate download of the FP10 >> > installer, however these are the problems we still face: >> > >> > - If a user doesn't have the player installed, there will be a >> two-step >> > install process (one for the player, one for our app), which is >> sooo 90s >> > - We can't legally change the install location of the NPAPI >> plugin, so if >> > we automate downloads of the NPAPI FP10 and the user doesn't have >> Mozilla >> > installed it's unclear what we should do >> > - Not sure if we can specify the kind of Player (NPAPI vs ActiveX) to >> > download from adobe.com if the user is on Windows >> > >> > Even for the base case (a user with Mozilla and the NPAPI FP10 plugin >> > installed prior to install of our app), should we talk this over >> with Adobe >> > legal? >> > >> > Has anyone heard of Adobe entering into custom licensing agreements >> for this >> > kind of thing (and I mean, actual bonafide true stories, not conjecture >> > based on Adobe's licensing page making passing reference)? >> > >> > Hope this hits someone's cache! >> > >> > Cheers, >> > Jules >> > -- >> > Jules Suggate >> > Owner and Technical Lead >> > Uphill Sprint Limited >> > >> > +64-21-157-8562 >> > >> >> >> > >
